We had this salad the first time with just greens, salmon, avocado, cucumber, and ranch, and I loved it. But I asked Dave, ‘you know what would make this salad even better?’ ‘Bacon’, he said.

Yup. Bacon is a classic in salads, with ranch dressing, with avocados, with tomatoes – with just about every ingredient in this salad. I was so eager to try this salad again, this time with that one extra ingredient, that I decided to make it for lunch on a Sunday afternoon, right before I had to leave for a trip for work.

After packing and practicing my presentation for the conference, I had some regrets about planning a real meal before I needed to leave. It was absolutely worth it though. The salad was just as good with the bacon as I was hoping, by which I mean it was even better than the original – not an easy feat.

2. Heat a not-nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add the oil, spreading it evenly with a spatula, then the salmon, skin-side down. Cook, without moving, for 4 minutes. Flip the fillets and continue to cook for 3 more minutes. Transfer the salmon to a clean plate and let rest for 1 minute.

3. Meanwhile, in a large bowl, mix the romaine, bacon, tomatoes, cucumber, avocados, and dressing. Top with the salmon and serve immediately.

Hominy. It just isn’t one of my favorites. It’s no green pepper – blech – but I struggle with the texture. I don’t want soggy popcorn in my soup. I’ve never cooked with it myself, and I almost left it out of this soup – until I saw that it was pureed. That seemed safe enough.

When I opened the can to make dinner, I noticed that hominy smells like one of my favorite foods – fresh corn tortillas. It’s the same nixtamalization process that it used for masa harina, and I love that intensely corny aroma.

It was great in this soup; pureeing the hominy binds the broth together and makes it thick but not starchy or gloppy. And now that I know how good hominy tastes, I might try it whole. I could learn to like hominy after all…unlike green peppers, which are a lost cause.

1. Heat the oven to 425 degrees. Spray the tortilla strips with oil (or nonstick spray) and season with salt. Halve and cut crosswise into ¼-inch strips. Arrange in a single layer on a baking sheet and cook until deep-golden brown and crispy, 10 to 12 minutes, tossing halfway through.

2. Meanwhile, heat the remaining 1 tablespoon of oil in a large pot or Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add the onion and cook until softened, about 4 minutes. Add the garlic, cumin, chili powder, and chipotle chile; cook, stirring constantly, until fragrant, about 1 minute. Add the broth, hominy, and tomatoes. Increase the heat to medium-high and bring to a simmer, then reduce the heat to medium-low; cover and simmer for 15 minutes.

3. Puree the soup, either with an immersion blender or by transferring it in batches to a standup blender. Add the shrimp and cook, stirring occasionally, until they are just cooked through and opaque, about 3 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in the cilantro and lime juice. Serve immediately, topping each portion with tortilla strips.

I never would have served my dad kale six months ago. For his whole life, he’s been a classic meat and potatoes guy, heavy on the meat. He’d put vegetables on his plate every night, and he’d always eat them – all two forkfuls that he’d served himself.

He made a sudden switch last fall in an attempt to lower his cholesterol and blood pressure. (It worked, by the way.) However, he didn’t just start eating more vegetables and less meat. He didn’t become a pescatarian, or even a vegetarian. No, he went all the way from meat and potatoes to vegan – vegan with no fat, not even from avocados.

He’s loosened up the rules quite a bit since then, although I get the idea that rice and beans still play a big role in his diet. So when my parents visited, I took a chance and served my new favorite salad, almost a slaw of thinly sliced Brussels sprouts and Tuscan kale. It’s bright from lemon juice, but the pecorino provides a bit of richness. I love the crunch of the almonds. It’s a strange world, although not a bad one, where I am comfortable feeding my dad kale but not the Italian sausage dish that was the main course of this meal.

1. In a small skillet over medium heat, heat 1 teaspoon of the olive oil. Add the almonds and toast, stirring constantly, until browned and fragrant, 2-4 minutes. Transfer the almonds to a plate; set aside.

2. In a small bowl, mix the lemon juice, mustard, shallots, garlic, salt, and pepper. Whisk in the remaining olive oil.

3. Combine the Brussels sprouts, kale, dressing, almonds, and pecorino. Serve immediately or cover and chill for up to 8 hours.

While spinach with feta hasn’t quite reached the level of “Oh my god, if I eat this one more time, I’ll go crazy”, it’s certainly a far cry from the “wow, I can’t believe how delicious something as simple as the combination of spinach and feta is.” (Seriously, if you haven’t tried it, check it out – feta is creamy and salty and briny, so it covers all of the bases that a good salad dressing does.) After I eat a banana with peanut butter about halfway through my workday afternoons, when the only snacks I have left are spinach with feta and vegetables with hummus, I think to myself, “well, that’s it, the rest of the afternoon’s snacks are just to be endured and not enjoyed.”

I don’t always, or even often, for that matter, want to spend part of my weekend making snacks for the week, but it’s occasionally worth it for some variety. This soup covers the same basic nutritional bases as spinach with feta would – vegetables and dairy protein. Surely raw spinach has more fiber and nutrients than roasted and boiled cauliflower, but let’s not overthink things.

The important thing is that I actually look forward to eating this every day, instead of wavering between disinterest and dread. And not just because it isn’t the same thing I’ve eaten everyday for the last three years – it’s a great soup. The pureed cauliflower makes it seem rich and creamy, while the feta and squeeze of lemon juice brighten up the flavors. Having something to look forward to when you’re six hours into a nine-hour workday is worth a bit of extra cooking on the weekend.

1. Place a rimmed baking sheet in the oven and heat the oven to 400 degrees. When the oven is hot, remove the baking sheet, add one tablespoon of olive oil plus a generous sprinkling of salt, then the cauliflower. Spray the top of the cauliflower with cooking spray. Roast, stirring twice, for 20-25 minutes, until a couple sides of each floret are deeply browned.

2. In a 5-quart pot, heat the remaining 1 tablespoon oil over medium heat. Add the celery, onion, and a pinch of salt; cook, stirring occasionally, until softened and the onion is translucent, 6-8 minutes. Add the roasted cauliflower, broth, and thyme. Bring to a simmer over medium-high heat, then reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer for 20 minutes. Puree, either with an immersion blender or in batches with a stand-up blender.

3. Stir the feta, lemon juice, and parsley into the soup. Taste for seasoning, adjusting as necessary, and serve immediately. (Can also be made several days in advance.)

Can you believe we actually ate this in the middle of December? What were we thinking?! We could have been eating roast beef! mashed potatoes! macaroni and cheese! ‘Tis the season (well, ’twas the season) for rich and delicious food!

This vegetably starchless meal is clearly made for January. It’s actually exactly what I’m craving. Even though I don’t think I’m eating significantly more healthfully lately than I normally do, I’m more bored with healthy foods right now. Maybe it’s an instinctual reaction to winter, although considering that it was almost 70 degrees here last weekend, probably not.

This meal, although pretty healthy, is also sweet and salty and meaty and therefore comforting. It definitely doesn’t make you feel like you’re choking down health food to make up for December’s transgressions. Sure, there’s a salad involved, but it’s topped with deeply browned meat. It really is a great meal any time of year.

1. Trim the pork of any silverskin and excess fat, and cut on the diagonal into ½-inch-thick medallions.

2. In a small measuring cup, whisk together the soy sauce, 2 tablespoons of the rice vinegar, 2 tablespoons of the brown sugar, the garlic, ginger, ½ tablespoon of the sesame oil, and 2 teaspoons of the chile sauce. Toss ½ cup of this mixture with the pork medallions in a large bowl; reserve the remaining mixture to use as a sauce. Let the pork sit at room temperature for 25 minutes or refrigerate for up to 2 hours.

3. Meanwhile, in another large bowl, toss the cabbage and the carrot with half of the scallions, 1 teaspoon salt, and the remaining 2 tablespoons rice vinegar, 1 tablespoon brown sugar, ½ tablespoon sesame oil, and 1 teaspoon chile sauce. Let sit for 15 minutes, toss again, and transfer to a large serving platter.

4. Heat 1 tablespoon of the canola oil in a 12-inch, heavy-based skillet over medium-high heat until shimmering hot. Remove the pork from the marinade, shaking off the excess, and transfer the pork to a clean plate. Discard the marinade. Add half of the pork medallions to the skillet, spacing them evenly. Cook them without touching until well browned, about 2 minutes. Flip and cook until the pork is just cooked through (slice into a piece to check), about 2 more minutes. Set the pork on top of the slaw. Pour out the oil and wipe the pan with paper towels (if the drippings on the bottom of the pan look like they may burn, wash the pan). Return the pan to medium-high heat. Add the remaining 1 tablespoon canola oil, and cook the remaining medallions in the same manner. Top the slaw with the remaining pork, and pour the reserved soy-ginger sauce over the medallions. Serve immediately, sprinkled with the remaining scallions.

Dave’s birthday, 2 weeks after Christmas, is at a sort of inconvenient time of year. My dad’s is January 2nd, and even that is better – in my family, the holidays are just one day longer than they are for everyone else. But a week later, you’ve had all the cookies and wine and cheese (or whatever your splurges happen to be) you want, but you haven’t had more than a few days to detox from the decadence. And yet, it’s time for banana cream pie.

I got Dave a cute little cast iron saucepan for the grill, so I had to plan a meal that would allow him to use it. He also got a new grill for Christmas, so I specifically planned a meal that would use both of our grills – barbecue pork ribs, grilled potato salad, grilled broccoli. And then the weather sucked, although we pushed through and grilled the ribs and potatoes still, but I roasted the broccoli.

It wasn’t the most indulgent meal ever, but extra vegetables are always welcome this time of year, so I chose the potato salad that actually looked like a salad. It’s not a traditional potato salad coated in mayonnaise, but I didn’t feel like we lost out for the healthier option. This was crisp and fresh, healthy enough for January, but still with satisfying browned potatoes and creamy cheese. It was just light enough to justify a big piece of banana cream pie for dessert.

1. Combine vinegar, shallot, and mustard in medium bowl. Gradually whisk in ½ cup oil. Season vinaigrette to taste with salt and pepper.

2. Cook potatoes in large pot of boiling salted water until almost tender, about 16 minutes. Drain; cool completely. Cut potatoes into ¼- to ½-inch-thick rounds. Brush or spray rounds on both sides with oil; sprinkle with salt and pepper.

4. In a large serving bowl, mix the watercress, scallions, and most of the vinaigrette. Add the potatoes and the remaining dressing, and gently mix to coat. Top with the blue cheese; serve immediately.

So, it turns out that I really like kale. It isn’t at all something I eat just because it’s dark green and probably really good for me. I like the flavor, earthy and vegetal together. I like the texture, how cooked kale is still chewy, unlike spinach which almost immediately turns to mush, and how raw kale doesn’t get soggy. And I like the convenience – it stays fresh for a while in the fridge and you can make salads with it days ahead of time, and they get better instead of worse.

I made this for a pizza party I hosted. The party started right after work, plus I had to deal with the pizza dough, so making salad right beforehand wasn’t an option. I took a risk and served kale; I wasn’t sure how it would go over, but I assumed there were enough friendly flavors in this salad to please most palates.

The salad might not have been as popular as the Nutella banana pizza or mascarpone-stuffed strawberries, but people seemed to like it. There were leftovers, but that was okay, because even several days after I’d made the salad, it was still crisp and delicious. Plus it meant more kale for me – and I really like kale.

1. Place the vinegar and currants in a small pot; bring to a simmer over medium-high heat, then remove from the heat. Let soak 15-30 minutes, while you prepare the other ingredients; drain, reserving vinegar.

2. Whisk vinegar leftover from soaking the currants, the rice vinegar, honey, oil, and salt in large bowl. Add the kale, currants, and pine nuts; toss to coat. Let marinate 20 minutes at room temperature, or cover and refrigerate overnight. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Sprinkle cheese shavings over salad and serve.

Does it seem like this holiday season has been a lot crazier than normal? It’s must be because Thanksgiving was late this year, which meant that all of the shopping, baking, and socializing had to be squished into about four weeks instead of five like last year. Even if you’re organized enough to start shopping and baking ahead of time, there’s still the parties – the office party, the other office party, the cookie decorating party, the cookie exchange, and on and on.

In addition to all that, we ended up being part of yet another office party, this one at the Big Boss’s house, which is not an invitation you turn down. I wasn’t feeling like I had time for the party and definitely not for the baking I’d agreed to do for the party, so I had some relief when it got postponed and I got to stay home and make this pizza instead.

It sounds weird, I know. But it’s my favorite vegetable and one of my favorite cheeses, plus bacon, plus bread, so I knew it couldn’t be bad. The bacon, it turns out, really makes it, adding an element of sweetness to go with the nutty vegetables and tangy cheese. This pizza and a quiet night at home was exactly what I needed this holiday season.

1. Place a pizza stone on a rack about 3 inches below the broiler and preheat the oven to 500 degrees. Shape the dough into a ball; cover and set aside for 10 to 30 minutes to allow the gluten to relax.

2. In a medium skillet, cook the bacon, stirring occasionally, over medium heat until it’s just barely crisp, about 8 minutes; use a slotted spoon to transfer it to a paper towel-lined plate. Remove all but about a thin coating of fat in the pan. Add the Brussels sprouts and shallots and cook, stirring constantly, until softened, about 3 minutes. Add the garlic and red pepper flakes and cook, stirring constantly, until fragrant, about 1 minute. Remove the pan from the heat and add the vinegar. Set aside.

3. Flatten the dough, then pick it up and gently stretch it out, trying to keep it as circular as possible. Curl your fingers and let the dough hang on your knuckles, moving and rotating the dough so it stretches evenly. If it tears, piece it together. If the dough stretches too much, put it down and gently tug on the thick spots.

4. Line a pizza peel (or the back of a baking sheet) with parchment paper and transfer the round of dough to the peel, rearranging it to something reasonably circular. Top with the mozzarella, then the Brussels sprouts mixture, goat cheese, and parmesan. Transfer the pizza to the hot pizza stone.

5. Immediately turn the oven off and the broiler on (to high, if yours has settings). Bake the pizza for about 5 minutes, until the bottom is spotty browned and the cheese is bubbling. Transfer the pizza to a cooling rack; cool about 5 minutes before slicing and serving.

I have been loyal to the first homemade tomato soup recipe I ever made. It was ten years ago, when I was just starting to up my cooking game. I’ve seen so many tomato soup recipes since then, but I’ve never felt any temptation to stray. My favorite recipe was comfortingly familiar, and I always knew that I’d be disappointed about any other recipe.

Apparently, adding meatballs to tomato soup puts it in a different category, so I’m willing to try it, even though there are more similarities than differences between the two recipes. The flavor base of my old favorite is shallots, which are cooked in butter with tomato paste until the mixture is dark and caramelized. Canned tomatoes are roasted until they’re dry and lightly browned before being stirred into aromatics along with the canning juice and chicken broth.

Replace the butter with olive oil and the shallots with a combination of onions, carrots, and celery, cook them a bit less, skip the tomato paste and add the tomatoes without roasting them, and you’ve got this new soup. The flavor is lighter, but I enjoyed it nearly as much and might actually prefer it once in a while.

The meatballs, of course, are a fun addition, and together with the pasta, put this almost in the spaghettio’s category. I’d say it’s different enough not to compare to my standard recipe, but I just compared them. And that’s okay, because they’re both so great.

My meatballs ended up looking more like chicken-flavored pesto than pesto-flavored chicken, which might be because my homemade pesto has less oil (and therefore more basil per volume) than store-bought versions. Still, I’ve increased the chicken slightly. The soup could use more meatballs anyway.

I’ve probably made this slightly less healthy by increasing the pasta, but the original amount (4 ounces) was just a tease.

I usually cook with canned whole tomatoes instead of diced, because they break down more. I just chop them by sticking a pair of kitchen shears in the can and snipping away.

1. In a medium mixing bowl, combine the chicken, pesto, bread crumbs, and salt. Mix thoroughly, then form into approximately forty ½-inch balls. Chill until needed.

2. In a 3- or 4-quart saucepan, heat the oil over medium heat. Add the onion, carrot, celery, and ¼ teaspoon salt. Cover and cook, stirring occasionally, for 10 minutes, then uncover and cook until the mixture is dry, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic and cook, stirring constantly, until fragrant, about 1 minute. Add the chicken broth and tomatoes; bring to a simmer over medium-high heat, then reduce the heat to medium-low, cover, and simmer for 20 minutes to blend the flavors. Taste for seasoning and add salt if necessary.

3. Use an immersion blender to puree the soup, or transfer it in batches to a stand-up blender to puree, then return the soup to the pot. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat and add the meatballs and pasta. Cook, stirring frequently, until the noodles are tender and the meatballs are cooked through, about 10 minutes. Serve.

It took me a few tries to get the office potluck right. In the meantime, I learned that goat cheese is a bad idea; the old cowboys think it sounds gross and won’t try it. Dips and spreads don’t work well because you have to dish both the spread and the item to be spread onto and guess at the ratio. Grabbable snacks are fine, but not necessary, because people aren’t hovering and grazing; they just fill a plate and find a seat at the crowded table in the conference room.

Food in crockpots is always popular, but anything that requires a bowl is too much work for people; you need one hand for your plate and the other to scoop more food onto that plate, so a bowl overloads you. That still leaves a lot of good food though – meatballs, beans, pastas. I considered bringing macaroni and cheese in the crockpot, but after a look at the potluck’s sign-up sheet, decided that more carbs was probably unnecessary.

So then I started thinking that something more on the healthier side would be nice. A green salad doesn’t work though; I’m okay with my foods touching, but not grape jelly-chile meatball sauce and lettuce. Instead, I combined all of my favorite antipasti ingredients into one bowl, mixed it up, and let it sit overnight. In that time, the brine from the olives, seasoning in the salami, and herbs in the artichoke marinade seeped into the chickpeas and milky mozzarella.

I couldn’t stop eating it when I made it. At the potluck, it didn’t get overshadowed by tasty choices like chile relleno casserole, green chile corn pudding, and green chile stew (green chile is how we do potlucks in New Mexico). I don’t know if the picky old cowboys tried it, but several other people gave me compliments. My favorite was the leftovers though – I didn’t have to share and there were no distractions from the salad itself.

1. Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Arrange the tomatoes cut side up on a baking sheet; place the garlic on the baking sheet. Bake until the tomatoes are slightly shriveled and the garlic is soft, about 30 minutes. Cool to room temperature.

2. In a large serving bowl, mix the tomatoes and all of the remaining ingredients. Squeeze the garlic into the mixture; stir. Marinate at least 1 hour or cover and refrigerate for up to three days. Serve at room temperature.